Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?

The food environment influences consumer diets in significant yet underexplored ways. In this study, we assess the way in which the Nairobi urban food environment—availability, accessibility, affordability, desirability, convenience and marketing—influences the dietary choices and quality of poor ur...

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Autores principales: Chege, Christine G. Kiria, Wanyama, Rosina, Lundy, Mark M., Nguru, Wilson, Jäger, Matthias
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114259
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author Chege, Christine G. Kiria
Wanyama, Rosina
Lundy, Mark M.
Nguru, Wilson
Jäger, Matthias
author_browse Chege, Christine G. Kiria
Jäger, Matthias
Lundy, Mark M.
Nguru, Wilson
Wanyama, Rosina
author_facet Chege, Christine G. Kiria
Wanyama, Rosina
Lundy, Mark M.
Nguru, Wilson
Jäger, Matthias
author_sort Chege, Christine G. Kiria
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The food environment influences consumer diets in significant yet underexplored ways. In this study, we assess the way in which the Nairobi urban food environment—availability, accessibility, affordability, desirability, convenience and marketing—influences the dietary choices and quality of poor urban consumers, by combining market-level diversity scores (MLDS) with household and individual data collected from resource-poor (slum) neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. We find that urban-poor settings are characterized by a variety of food retail venues, including informal markets such as kiosks, mom-and-pop shops and tabletop vendors, as well as modern retail outlets such as supermarkets. Most of these food outlets predominantly sell unhealthy, highly-processed and energy-dense foods rather than nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits and animal products. Our analyses show that supermarkets have the highest MLDS, yet they do not significantly influence the diets of resource-poor households. However, a high MLDS among informal retail outlets has a positive association with diet quality; conversely, open-air markets have a negative association. The nutritional status of urban-poor consumers can be improved by promoting the diversification of healthy, nutritious foods across traditional retail outlets and improving accessibility of the outlets to consumers.
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spelling CGSpace1142592025-11-11T17:42:24Z Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets? Chege, Christine G. Kiria Wanyama, Rosina Lundy, Mark M. Nguru, Wilson Jäger, Matthias retail marketing feeding preferences urban poverty consumer behaviour dietary diversity venta al por menor preferencias alimentarias pobreza urbana The food environment influences consumer diets in significant yet underexplored ways. In this study, we assess the way in which the Nairobi urban food environment—availability, accessibility, affordability, desirability, convenience and marketing—influences the dietary choices and quality of poor urban consumers, by combining market-level diversity scores (MLDS) with household and individual data collected from resource-poor (slum) neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. We find that urban-poor settings are characterized by a variety of food retail venues, including informal markets such as kiosks, mom-and-pop shops and tabletop vendors, as well as modern retail outlets such as supermarkets. Most of these food outlets predominantly sell unhealthy, highly-processed and energy-dense foods rather than nutritious foods such as vegetables, fruits and animal products. Our analyses show that supermarkets have the highest MLDS, yet they do not significantly influence the diets of resource-poor households. However, a high MLDS among informal retail outlets has a positive association with diet quality; conversely, open-air markets have a negative association. The nutritional status of urban-poor consumers can be improved by promoting the diversification of healthy, nutritious foods across traditional retail outlets and improving accessibility of the outlets to consumers. 2021-07-09 2021-07-13T07:42:17Z 2021-07-13T07:42:17Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114259 en Open Access application/pdf MDPI Chege, C.G.K.; Wanyama, R.; Lundy, M.; Nguru, W; Jäger, M. (2021) Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets? Sustainability 13(14):7666. ISSN: 2071-1050
spellingShingle retail marketing
feeding preferences
urban poverty
consumer behaviour
dietary diversity
venta al por menor
preferencias alimentarias
pobreza urbana
Chege, Christine G. Kiria
Wanyama, Rosina
Lundy, Mark M.
Nguru, Wilson
Jäger, Matthias
Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?
title Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?
title_full Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?
title_fullStr Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?
title_full_unstemmed Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?
title_short Does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets?
title_sort does retail food diversity in urban food environments influence consumer diets
topic retail marketing
feeding preferences
urban poverty
consumer behaviour
dietary diversity
venta al por menor
preferencias alimentarias
pobreza urbana
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/114259
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